Syria, Egypt and Middle East unrest - Tuesday 6 December

Qatari Prime Minister and head of state Hamad ben Jassem and Secretary General of Arab League Nabil al-Arabi. The League says it will maintain sanctions imposed on Syria. Photograph: Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images

Syria

•.Violence appears to be increasing in the central city of Homs, with 31 people killed so far in Syria today, all but one in Homs,. according to activists. The Syrian Observatory of Human rights said the bodies of 34 people killed by pro-Assad militia were dumped in a square in the restive city on Monday. The violence in Homs has become increasingly sectarian, with it-for-tat attacks pitting majority Sunnis against members of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, according to AP. The reports of deaths cannot be independently verified

•The US ambassador, who was withdrawn from Damascus for his own safety, is returning to Syria. The announcement came as Hillary Clinton was meeting members of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) in Geneva. The US state department said Ford, who was withdrawn for his own safety, would demonstrate "that the United States stands with the people of Syria".Clinton stressed the need to protect minorities after democratic transition "regardless of sect or ethnicity or gender".

•The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that the Assad regime has lost control of about a tenth of Syria. Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based group, also told the Guardian a "civilian war" was now a reality in the country. As if to confirm what Abdulrahman said Syrian state media claimed its border guards blocked 35 "armed terrorists" from crossing into the country from Turkey, where the renegade Free Syrian Army (FSA) is based, after a gun battle. Meanwhile, the FSA FSA said it killed 22 troops by bombing two buses carrying troops in Hama. It said the attack was launched in retaliation for the kidnapping of civilians by the security forces. However, the SNC claimed the FSA is sticking to an agreement to stop launching attacks on the regular army.

Egypt

•Voting is continuing in the run-offs in the Egyptian elections but turnout has been low according to media reports. Radio Masr put the turnout at 20% compared to 52% in last week's first round. The run-offs are taking place for seats in which no individual won 50% or more of the vote in the first round. Voting on Monday was marred by violence by thugs, including gunfire, as well as scuffles between different Islamist groups.

•The Muslim Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badei, said the group would take to the streets if there was any poll fraud. One district in Cairo has already had its results cancelled after 15 ballot boxes went missing and 75 others were damaged. Badie also sought to quell fears of the Islamisation of the country and said the Brotherhood is prepared to compromise with the military on the formation of a new government.

Yemen

•The United Nations called on all factions to cease attacks on civilians and urged the government to allow access for aid supplies and UN human rights monitors. In co-ordinated statements, the UN human rights office, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) and the Yemen Humanitarian Co-ordinator voiced concern about the deteriorating situation despite the signing of a peace deal nearly two weeks ago. They condemned "continuing attacks on civilians", particularly in Yemen, where the death toll since Thursday has been put at 30 by medical officials.

•Yemen's new prime minister said that an interim government intended to pull the country back from the brink of civil war would be formed in the next 48 hours.Mohammed Basindwa, a former foreign minister representing opposition parties who are to split cabinet posts with Saleh's party, told Reuters he expected the government to be agreed on Wednesday night or the following day.

Bahrain

•Human Rights Watch has called on the Bahraini authorities to act quickly to address the "systematic and egregious rights violations" documented by the Bahrain Independent Commision of Inquiry. It said the first step should be to "immediately release hundreds of people wrongfully detained or convicted following unfair trials".

Libya

• The Libyan government has vowed to disarm Tripoli by the end of the year in the wake of concerns about the number of armed rebel fighters who have based themselves in the capital since the fall of Gaddafi.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

5.43pm GMT / 12.43pm EST: ABC News says it has secured the first US media on-camera interview with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad (pictured left), since the start of the uprising. The "no-holds-barred interview" with veteran broadcaster Barbara Walters will be broadcast tomorrow.

The promotional piece for the interview makes interesting reading, probably not very comforting to Assad:

Walters' interview with President Al-Assad continues ABC News' year of unprecedented exclusives with world leaders, including former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and former Libyan Dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

"The government has promised us to disarm Tripoli by December 31," Abdul Razzak Buhajar, whose city has been inundated by former rebel fighters who ousted Muammar Gaddafi, told reporters.

"They have assured the Tripoli council that the entire city will be disarmed," the council president said after a meeting with Kib and members of the National Transitional Council (NTC) ruling Libya.

Earlier on Tuesday, dozens of protesters blocked off several main roads in Tripoli to demand that fighters from other parts of the country pull out of the capital, which the rebels seized from Gaddafi's forces in August.

On October 5, Libya's new leaders ordered all heavy weapons to be removed from Tripoli, warning that their prolonged presence risked giving a bad image of the revolution which ousted Gaddafi.

He will continue the work he was doing previously; namely, delivering the United States' message to the people of Syria; providing reliable reporting on the situation on the ground; and engaging with the full spectrum of Syrian society on how to end the bloodshed and achieve a peaceful political transition. We believe his presence in the country is among the most effective ways to send the message that the United States stands with the people of Syria.

Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

4.23pm GMT / 11.23am EST: Hillary Clinton has arrived in Geneva for a meeting with Syrian opposition members and has said they will be discussing how ensure minorities are protected.

Sitting across a table from six members of the opposition Syrian National Council, she said:

Obviously, a democratic transition is more than removing the Assad regime. It means setting Syria on the path of the rule of law

We will discuss the work that the council is doing to ensure that their plan is to reach out to all minorities to counter the regime's divide-and-conquer approach, which pits ethnic and religious groups against one another ...

The Syrian opposition that is represented here recognises that Syria's minorities have legitimate questions and concerns about their future and that they need to be assured that Syria will be better off under a regime of tolerance and freedom

As a first step, the government should immediately release hundreds of people wrongfully detained or convicted following unfair trials. And it should investigate high-level officials responsible for serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said.

Authorities should void all verdicts issued by the special military courts and drop all charges brought solely because people exercised their right to freely express political opinions and assemble peacefully. Authorities should only try civilians for legitimate criminal offences, before a civilian court meeting international fair trial standards. These standards include the right of defendants to examine the evidence and witnesses against them, and the exclusion of all evidence obtained by torture or ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said.

"The independent commission's report gives Bahraini authorities an opportunity to remedy some of their gross abuses by releasing all persons convicted or held for exercising their rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "It is crucial for Bahrain to send a strong message that there will be no impunity for the human rights crimes documented by the Bassiouni commission."

3.56pm GMT / 10.56am EST: Syria claims its border guards blocked 35 "armed terrorists" from crossing into the country from southern Turkey after a gun battle.

Border security forces clashed with an armed terrorist group composed of 35 gunmen and prevented them from entering the Syrian territories and wounded a number of them as the rest of the group fled into the Turkish territories.

Sources added that cars were heard taking the wounded gunmen away on the Turkish side, while the Syrian border security forces suffered no losses at all.

Homs-based activist Mohammed Saleh said there was a spate of kidnappings and killings in the city earlier Monday.

Homs and other areas have seen an increasing number of tit-for-tat attacks pitting majority Sunnis against members of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, fearsome violence that evokes the seething conflicts that have bedeviled neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon.

"It was an insane escalation," Saleh told The Associated Press by telephone from Homs after Monday's violence. "There were kidnappings and killings in a mad way. People are afraid to go out of their homes."

Meanwhile, Reuters has confirmed that US ambassador Robert Ford is due to return to Damascus tonight.

The Local Co-ordiantion Committees of Syria said a child was among 30 people killed in the city amid reports of heavy shooting the city's south-east district of Bab Amro.

The claim, which cannot be verified, comes as a series of gruesome videos showed body parts of victims strewn on the streets and pavements of a northern district of the city. The footage showed arms, feet, and heads in the Khalidiya area.

3.18pm GMT / 10.18am EST: Alaa Abd El Fattah, the prominent Egyptian activist who has been in jail since being arrested on October 30, has become a father.

Abd El Fattah had an appeal against his detention rejected by the north Cairo court of appeal on Monday. His friends said at the time that it would probably mean him missing the birth. His next appeal hearing is due to take place on Sunday.

Abd El Fattah is being held pending investigation. He was arrested on charges of inciting violence against the military relating to the bloodshed at a march of Coptic Christians on 9 October after he spoke out against the army's involvement in the violence.

3.09pm GMT / 10.09am EST: Robert Ford, the outspoken US ambassador to Syria is to be sent back Damascus, according to AP.

It cites a senior administration official. Ford was withdrawn from Syria in October for his own safety after a number of attacks against him by pro-Assad supporters. The state department had said it was hoping to send him back before Thanksgiving.

Ford infuriated the government by visiting an anti-government protests in Hama at the height of the demonstrations during the summer.

2.44pm GMT / 9.44am EST: The Free Syrian Army is sticking to an agreement to stop launching attacks on the regular army, the opposition Syrian National Council claims.

Follow talks with the SNC last week in Turkey the FSA agreed to change tactics by focusing on the protection of civilians.

Speaking to Sky News, Monajed said: "The fire is coming from one side - which is the regime's forces. The FSA is defending the protesters ... it is not launching offensive operations as far as we know. The Syrian National Council is in contact and liaison with the Free Syrian Army and we have agreed that the Free Syrian Army will make sure that all their operations will remain defensive not offensive."

Monajed, who is an adviser to the SNC leader Burhan Ghalioun, said the council was "studying" the idea of setting up humanitarian buffer zones inside Syria to protect civilians. There is currently no need for foreign troops on the ground, he said.

But he added: "The minute there is a co-ordinated effort by the international community to impose this safety zone and start to guard it, we will start to see major defections at senior levels".

2.08pm GMT / 9.08am EST: Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has backed the Assad regime in a TV address after a rare public appearance in Lebanon.

He accused some in the Syrian opposition of catering to US agendas in Syria and the region, and called on protesters to realize that they were being "used" for the wider aim of striking at Assad's regime for its support for Hezbollah and other anti-Israel groups in the region.

Syria

•The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that the Assad regime has lost control of about a tenth of Syria. Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based group, told the Guardian a "civilian war" was now a reality in the country.

•Syria has said it will only release political prisoners it judged not to be "involved in crimes of murder or acts of sabotage", leaked details of its negotiations with the Arab League reveal. The Lebanese news site al-Akhbar confirmed that Damascus is also demanding an end to its suspension from the bloc and sanctions, that the deal be signed in the Syrian capital, not Cairo, and that the League inform the UN security council of the "positive" agreement.

Egypt

•Voting is continuing in the run-offs in the Egyptian elections but turnout has been low according to media reports. Radio Masr put the turnout at 20% compared to 52% in last week's first round. The run-offs are taking place for seats in which no individual won 50% or more of the vote in the first round. Voting on Monday was marred by violence by thugs, including gunfire, as well as scuffles between different Islamist groups.

•The Muslim Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badei, said the group would take to the street if there was any poll fraud. One district in Cairo has already had its results cancelled after 15 ballot boxes went missing and 75 others were damaged. Badie also sought to quell fears of the Islamisation of the country and said the Brotherhood is prepared to compromise with the military on the formation of a new government.

Yemen

•The United Nations called on all factions to cease attacks on civilians and urged the government to allow access for aid supplies and UN human rights monitors. In co-ordinated statements, the UN human rights office, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) and the Yemen Humanitarian Co-ordinator voiced concern about the deteriorating situation despite the signing of a peace deal nearly two weeks ago. They condemned "continuing attacks on civilians", particularly in Yemen, where the death toll since Thursday has been put at 30 by medical officials.

1.00pm GMT / 8.00am EST: Secularists worried about the influence Salafis might have in the new Egyptian parliament will not be reassured by the following two stories.

He also said Salafists would not allow Egypt's Baha'i community to hold religious festivals or mark their religion on National ID cards if they took power.

Speaking to journalist Hussein Abdel Ghani on El-Nahar channel Monday evening, Burhami also said a Salafist government would transform all banks into Islamic banks and prevent lenders from charging riba (interest), which is banned by Sharia law.

Burhami reiterated Salafists conditional support for a democratic transformation in the country. "Salafists accept democracy according to Islamic rules as long as it is not incompatible with the demands of the people and of Islamic Sharia law," Burhami said.

When asked about Salafist plans for Egypt's tourism industry, Burhami said tourism need not violate Sharia law. "Tourism is not all about nudity and alcohol," Burhami said. "These things are rejected by Sharia law."

12.06pm GMT / 7.06am EST: The Assad regime has lost control of about a tenth of Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rami Abdulrahman head of the UK-based group told the Guardian a "civilian war" was now a reality in the country.

Asked how much of the country had escaped the grip of the Syrian army he said "around 10%".

He added: "In Daael in [in the southern province of Deraa] and many areas in As Suwayda [in the south] they don't control it. The Syrian army just stands by and watches the demonstrations. In the Idlib area many of the small towns are out of the control of army."

There no longer is a permanent loyalist military presence in parts of Idlib, Hama and Homs governorates, a situation that enables the armed opposition to further regroup and organise. The governorates of Dayr Zor and Deraa appear on the verge of following a similar path. As defections mount and the army is under ever greater stress, there is reason to doubt that the regime can muster sufficient military resources to reverse the trend. Talk about creating safe-havens on the Turkish and Jordanian borders could soon be moot; in many ways, Syrians appear on their way to doing that on their own.

Abdulrahman said: "I see a civilian war in Syria now and in the future. What the Syrian security forces and the Syrian regime did in places like Baniyas, Latakia and Homs the people will not forget."

He said the Syrian Observatory estimated that 301 member of the Syrian security forces were killed in last month's violence. Up to 65 defected troops also died, he said.

There were clashes between defected troops and the regular army on Monday in Deraa and the the northern town of Ma'arrat an Numan, Abdulrahman said. Further clashes occurred north of Hama this morning, he added.

It is unclear whether the defected troops were member of the Free Syrian Army. "I know many people who have defected but I don't know the Free Syrian Army," Abdulrahman said.

12.02pm GMT / 7.02am EST: Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party (FJP), and its allies in the Democratic Alliance, may gain as many as half of the seats up for grabs in the first round of the elections, according to predictions from the Egyptian website Bikyamasr.

Its analysis makes a number of assumptions about how exactly the party list system will work (which it says is currently unclear) and about who will win the various individual seats in which run-offs are currently taking part. It gives the following estimates of the overall number of seats parties will have gained:

11.00am GMT / 6.00 am EST: The enthusiasm for the Egyptian elections appears to have dropped off somewhat.

Egypt's Radio Masr claims the turnout in the run-offs has been 20% compared to 52% in last week's first round. However, the run-offs, taking place in seats where no individual got 50% or more of the vote last week, continue today (they started on Monday) so there is time for that figure to rise.

The Arab Studies Institute's Jadaliyya website, an invaluable resource on the Egyptian elections, also says turnout was low on Monday. It adds that the day was marred by a series of reported violations, involving thugs and gunfights:

Cairo's low-income Dar El-Salam district was the first to witness ‎thugs plying their trade since polling began on 28 November, ‎when a group of unknown assailants broke the windows of a car ‎belonging to a judge tasked with observing the elections. They ‎also stole documents related to Monday's runoff vote. ‎ No political party or group has thus far been accused of ‎instigating the incident. ‎

In Luxor, polling was temporarily suspended due to two ‎gunfights that erupted for reasons unrelated to the polling. Members of the El-Holail and El-Taraki families exchanged fire ‎in Esna's village of El-Zonika, south of Luxor, reportedly due to a ‎quarrel between the two rival clans. Three people were injured ‎and six polling stations were temporarily shut until security ‎forces were able to contain the situation.‎

According to a judge tasked with supervising the electoral ‎process, another gunfight broke out in central Luxor on Monday ‎between security forces and infamous outlaw Yasser El-Hamboli ‎and his gang. "No polling stations were closed in Luxor due to ‎the gunfights, but many locals were dissuaded from casting ‎ballots," the judge, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ‎Ahram Online.‎

Meanwhile, elections observers dispatched by the Muslim ‎Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) reported the ‎presence of thugs in Cairo's Azbakia district. ‎

• Immediate scrapping of sanctions and reinstatement of Syria's membership of the League• Signing the deal in Damascus not Cairo• Arab League to inform the UN Security Council of the "positive" agreement

It quotes a foreign ministry spokeman Jihad Makdissi claiming that Syria was committed to the original Arab League peace plan.

"We are committed to the Arab initiative signed in Doha and we implemented a number of its articles. We pulled out all of our army from the centers of cities and released arrested people who haven't been convicted for murder," he said.

Activists continue to circulate videos showing a heavy army presence in and around Syria's city. The latest include this footage from Hama.

The death toll of civilians has risen to 50 martyrs today Monday 5 December 2011.

An activist from the neighbourhood of Al-Zahraa has told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that he saw the bodies of 34 people, who were originally kidnapped earlier today by 'Shabeeha', from the neighbourhoods uprising against the regime.

Syria says it will conditionally allow in observers to monitor the crackdown against dissent as part of the Arab League plan. But the move is being seen as another stalling tactic by Damascus and the League has said it will maintain sanctions against Syria.

In Egypt the ultra-conservative Salifists are reported to be considering a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood after both group's political parties dominated the first round of the elections.

I think the Muslim Brotherhood [in Egypt] should govern by coalition that includes the people from secular parties and the Copts.These minorities are small. But they are extremely influential. For them to succeed it's very important to bring all these people together into a coalition.

They should have never been legalised, on the same grounds that far-right parties are often forbidden in European countries ... Among my Egyptian friends (most decidedly on the liberal side) there is now tremendous worry about a future in which politics is ruled on the one hand by identitarian Islamist politics and on the other by a populist, hyper-nationalistic army.

Let's see what they do when they get into power. We can't just judge them because they are scarey bearded people, although some of the people who are getting into the Egyptian parliament are in fact slightly scarey bearded people.

Those of you out there who are inclined to panic at the thought of an Islamist controlled Egyptian parliament ... early signs are that you may officially start panicking. Let the freak out commence [but] I'm not moving.